ethnobotany_flashcards
What is ethnobotany?
The scientific study of how traditional societies use plants for food, building materials, fabrics, medicine, and spiritual purposes.
What percentage of prescription drugs are derived from plants?
0.25
What is an ‘herbal’?
A collection of plant drawings with written descriptions, detailing habitats and medicinal uses.
What ancient text from Egypt catalogs over 850 herbal remedies?
The Ebers Papyrus.
What Greek text described over 600 medicinal plants?
De Materia Medica.
What was the Doctrine of Signatures?
A belief that a plant’s appearance indicated the ailments it could treat.
Give an example of the Doctrine of Signatures.
Bloodroot’s red juice was used for blood disorders.
Name two modern approaches to discovering medicinal plants.
Ethnobotanical approach (consulting traditional healers) and phylogenetic surveys (studying plant relationships).
What is an herbarium?
A library of dried plants used for research on plant distribution and life cycles.
Who coined the term ‘plant blindness’ and when?
James H. Wandersee and Elisabeth E. Schussler in 1999.
What does plant blindness describe?
A general insensitivity to plants and their importance, often due to a zoocentric focus.
How does plant blindness affect biodiversity?
It contributes to the deterioration of biodiversity, with over 20% of plant species threatened with extinction.
What ancient philosopher believed plants weren’t truly alive?
Aristotle.
How are plants and humans molecularly similar?
Both share fundamental DNA components (C, G, A, T), and structures like hemoglobin and chloroplasts have similar ring structures.
What event was critical for Earth’s oxygenation?
The Great Oxygen Event.
What are the four main parts of a plant and their functions?
Roots (anchor and absorb nutrients), stems (provide structure, transport nutrients), leaves (photosynthesis), and flowers (reproduction).
What makes a plant cell unique?
Cell wall, large vacuole, and chloroplasts.
What is the difference between monocotyledons and dicotyledons?
Monocots have one seed leaf, parallel veins, and floral parts in multiples of three. Dicots have two seed leaves, net-like veins, and floral parts in multiples of four or five.
Who developed binomial nomenclature?
Carl Linnaeus.
What is the scientific name for potato?
Solanum tuberosum.
When did the shift from foraging to agriculture occur?
Around 8000 BC, during the Neolithic Revolution.
What are agricultural hearths?
Regions where agriculture first developed and spread from.
Name two crops domesticated in Mesoamerica.
Maize and beans.
What is domestication?
The process by which wild plants are adapted for human use, leading to genetic, morphological, and physiological changes.
